- By Halimah Olamide
Amidst controversies over the perceived unbefitting treatment of the Nigerian President Bola Tinubu at the swearing in of President Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa on Wednesday, the Presidency has shared some images showing close encounter and pleasantries between Tinubu and the newly inaugurated President.
A video that has gone viral had shown Tinubu tucked at the back roll of heads of governments who witnessed the inauguration ceremony.
The video had raised dust as many considered that the Nigerian President is bigger than the treatment of second roll on the African continent.
Many have argued that the treatment, which showed Tinubu looking at Ramaphosa greeted other dignitaries from the second roll, represented an indirect insult to Nigeria and her president.
An activiist and critic of the Tinubu administration, Aisha Yesufu, had on Wednesday derided Tinubu for being put in a second roll in an African country.
She belongs and campaigned for the Labour Party in the last general election.
Yesufu had written, “Everyone knows Nigerian does not have a President. We can fool ourselves all we want. No Nigerian President that is President will be relegated to the second row seat in an African context! Nahhhhh!”
But in response to her comment, the Presidency, through Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, had said, “Aisha and her uncouth horde of pessimists are always quick to rush to judgment with any whiff of what appears to them to be negative to the leader of Africa’s biggest democracy. More than a year after the 2023 election, in which their candidate came third, they remain incurably bitter and toxic, more than the supporters of the man who came second.”
Apparently trying to give a better angle of the images of Ramaphosa’s interaction with Tinubu, Onanuga had shared some images which he called “Composite Photos.”
He had given the photos the caption: Composite photos show President Cyril Ramaphosa and Chief Justice Raymond Zondo the inaugauration ceremony on 19 June 2024. Ramaphosa also meets Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”